Teaching About Money

Financial Literacy

 Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of independence believed that in order for the fledgling democracy that was the United States of America was to survive, it had to have an educated population. Fast forward to the twenty-first century and the same is true but with a slightly different spin. In order to bring us out of the recession and to move America along a path to a more permanent financial recovery, we need a population is that has a strong foundation in economic education. That is, we need a citizenry that knows how to save, and invest, how to balance a check book, to understand how credit works and how to make prudent financial choices for both the short and long term. The question will ultimately arise in the curriculum departments of many schools as to “where do we fit this in?” Our curriculum is crowded as it is and if the topic is not on any state assessment tests, we don’t have the classroom hours to devote to it. That attitude is bringing a great disservice to our country. How many more TARPS and bailouts do we have to have? How many more foreclosures of the homes of families will we see? How many more 401K plans will be decimated? How many more small business will go bankrupt?

There a number of web sites that would make good places for classroom teachers to start students  on a  path to economic sanity. The United States Federal Reserve Bank site has a wide variety of games, simulations, lesson plans and information for all grade levels, K-12. There are even publications that can be downloaded. One example is “Benjamin Franklin and the Birth of a Paper Money Economy.” Another title available is “The First Bank of The United States- a Chapter in the History of Central Bank." You can access this information by going to www.federalreserveeducation.org.

Another useful site is http://www.councilforeconed.org/. This is the site for the Council for Economic Education. Here you will find training modules for teachers as well as available publications for classroom use. Every year this organization sponsors a Financial and Economic Education Conference for teachers. Next year, the will conference will be held on October 4-6, 2012 in Kansas City, MO.

Even the New York Stock Exchange offers education programming. There are tours of the floor of the NYSE available for student groups. There are also summer teacher training scholarships available. These, however, are quite competitive. Go to http://corporate.nyx.com/who-we-are/corporate-social-responsibility/our-community/education-teacher-training for more information.

The NASDAQ also has information about personal finance and credit. See http://www.nasdaq.com/personal-finance/credit-debt.aspx.

Finally, The National Financial Educators Council offers videos and training materials as well as curriculum materials for teaching financial literacy in the classroom. You can find a wealth of materials at this site. Go to http://www.financialeducatorscouncil.org/  There is even a link for funding sources for financial education.

According to the National Endowment for Financial Education, as few as ten hours of classroom instruction can be enough to persuade students to improve their spending and saving habits.( Source Education World Magazine)